X-Yachts for Sale

Brothers Lars and Niels Jeppesen and their friend Birger Hansen started X-Yachts at Haderslev in southern Denmark in 1979. The first boat was the X-79, named for its length in meters and for the year, and 468 of them were built over the next fifteen years. The yard has since built more than 6,000 boats and runs at roughly 150 a year, with its own mould shop in Poland and final assembly at Haderslev. Ib Kunoe's Consolidated Holdings has been the majority owner since 2012. The line has moved through IOR racers in the 1980s, the performance cruisers that made the name (the X-412, the X-512, the X-382), the X-35 and X-41 one designs, the big X-73, and today's XCruising, XPerformance and XRange boats from about 40 to 56 feet, plus a small power range since 2021.

Used, an X is a fast cruising boat that is genuinely quick upwind and still civilized below, which is a narrower thing than it sounds and is why they hold value. The survey has two X specific items. First the steel bilge grid: it is hot dip galvanized and stands up well, but look for rust staining on the frame and where it meets the laminate, and for weeping around the keel bolts, particularly on a boat that has lived in the tropics. Second the rigging, because several models carry rod rigging that cannot really be inspected and is replaced on age rather than on condition. For an American buyer the other question is where the boat has lived. X-Yachts builds to CE standards, and a boat delivered in Europe is wired to European practice: no GFCI protection and wire colors that do not follow ABYC, both cheap to put right, and shore power that may be 230 volt 50 hertz rather than 120 volt 60 hertz. Confirm US duty has been paid before you make an offer on a boat lying abroad. Dealer support here is real but thin on the ground: X-Yachts lists US representation at Mystic, Annapolis, Manitowoc, Kemah, Anacortes and Santa Barbara, so parts come from Denmark through one of those rather than from a yard down the street.